Doak announces workers comp analyst to seek insurance rate reduction
Published: August 28th, 2011
Insurance Commissioner John Doak announced last week that the company which manages the nation’s largest database of workers’ compensation insurance information has filed a request with the Oklahoma Insurance Department to decrease the cost of workers’ compensation insurance in Oklahoma.
Doak said, in a disclosure sent to CapitolBeatOK, that the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc. (NCCI) filed to reduce workers’ compensation insurance rates in Oklahoma by 1.7 percent effective Jan. 1, 2012. The Commissioner said NCCI attributed the rate decrease to this year’s passage of Oklahoma Senate Bill 878.
Reforming Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation law was a priority for Gov. Mary Fallin. S.B. 878 received overwhelming support from both parties in the Legislature, on its way to comfortable approval in the 2011 session.
“Bipartisan passage of S.B. 878 is beginning to reap rewards for Oklahoma,” Doak said. “After years of suffering nothing but increases to the cost of insuring employees, it appears that many Oklahoma employers can look forward to paying less for workers’ compensation insurance.”
Doak called S.B. 878 “a good first step toward an ongoing reform process.”
The Oklahoma Insurance Department will review NCCI’s filing in the coming days. Approval of the decrease would stem rate increases to workers’ compensation insurance rates. Prior to passage of S.B. 878 rates were anticipated to rise again.
In other news, Commissioner Doak appointed Denise Engle as the state’s first Deputy Commissioner of Workers’ Compensation.